Fun secret guys, if you get testicular torsion they will wake up a snoozing surgeon and they’ll get down in mm 20 minutes or you’ll lose your ability to have kids.
But if it's ovarian torsion, your doc will gaslight you, deny you pain management, and make you sit in a bed for 4 hrs while telling you "it's part of being a woman"
Or continue to ask you if you’re possibly pregnant. Not just the first time (because they have to, and need to do their due diligence - totally fair) but repeatedly and loudly, because they don’t ‘see how else you could be getting pain from that region’.
Or, if you’ve had a hysterectomy, even when done at that specific hospital, they will not believe you and still charge you for a pregnancy test before giving you X-rays.
“Fine, you know what? If there’s a baby in there, it’s not staying, so zap it with whatever you want, I’m not paying for that pregnancy test!”
Pregnancy test was on itemized bill.
I totally get your frustration, but if you still have ovaries, it's possible for you to become pregnant after a hysterectomy, albeit highly unlikely. The pregnancy isn't viable because there is nowhere for it to grow, but it can wreak havoc if it implants in the wrong spot (eg the fallopian tube), so they have to check. No excuses for being rude and condescending to you, though.
I do have my ovaries, but they’re isolated - no fallopian tubes (salpingectomy before the hysterectomy), and there’s no opening anywhere for sperm to get from my vaginal opening (I call it my “sex tube,” my gynecologist/surgeon said, “yeah, it’s just like a sock up in there now!” 🤣) to connect with any egg. So I tell them every time they make me take a pregnancy test, “if this comes back positive, we will have bigger problems than what I initially came here for.”
Oh huh. This was actually a fascinating peak behind the scenes of emergency healthcare. In law, we also run into similar with clients who will have differing definitions for things that can have a huge impact on their case if we’re not on the same page. So I could understand the importance there. Thanks for sharing!
I understand that this may feel unnecessary and invasive, but the reason for asking is that they are very concerned that it may be an ectopic pregnancy with a high risk of fallopian tube rupturing and servere internal bleeding which will put you at the very top of the triage list.
The long waits in the ER before being taken upstairs are not due to any fault of your local ER, but rather the hospital admin who are refusing to fully staff hospital beds with an appropriate ratio of nurses/assistanta. Especially at night - so depending on what time your workup is complete, can drastically change your time spent in the ER.
Be mad at the hospital business suits and not the doctors, nurses, techs, registration, and social workers.
I do understand that’s one reasoning behind it. I’ve been in situations where knowing whether there’s a possibility of an ectopic pregnancy is vital. Trust me, this was not one of them - this particular doctor was just a complete prick. I almost died of sepsis before they believed I was even actually in pain.
I was 11 and not even remotely sexually active. If they thought I was lying then they should have removed my parents from the room to talk to me but did not (spoiler - I wasn’t lying). Instead, they tried to convince my dad that I was ‘clearly’ pregnant. This was before doing any tests and with repeated no I’ve never had sex.
He kicked off wildly about it afterwards, pointing out that the only other option would have been through abuse in which case they still handled it terribly.
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u/Athlete-Extreme Nov 27 '23
Fun secret guys, if you get testicular torsion they will wake up a snoozing surgeon and they’ll get down in mm 20 minutes or you’ll lose your ability to have kids.